33rd edition: Sunday, February 11, 2018

The race: Here's the story from winner Caleb Ewan's Mitchelton-Scott team.

23-year-old Australian Caleb Ewan sprinted to victory today in his first European race of the season, the Clasica de Almeria. After a strong start to the year with a stage win at the Tour Down Under, Ewan carried his form over to Europe, beating Danny van Popple (LottoNL-Jumbo) to take the victory in the 185kilometre one-day race.

Early breakaway
After just seven kilometres of racing, seven riders formed the main breakaway of the day and rode out to a maximum advantage of four minutes 30seconds. Mitchelton-SCOTT, with desires for a bunch sprint, headed to the front and used Roman Kreuziger in the opening stages to control the distance to the leaders with some welcomed help from LottoNL-Jumbo and Bora-Hansgrohe.

Re-united with the lead-out train
Once the breakaway was caught with 35kilometres to go, Mitchelton-SCOTT worked to follow the attacks and keep things together ahead of the sprint. Finally re-united with his lead-out train, Ewan was able to avoid crashes in the final and navigate through the peloton before launching from the wheel of Luka Mezgec to the victory.

Caleb Ewan - 1st Clasica de Almeria
“It’s really good to hit the ground running in my first European race and it was good to have the full lead-out squad behind me today. We were all a bit lost after getting caught behind a crash but once we all got back together and started the lead-out, no-one came round us and I am happy I was able to finish it off.

“I haven’t raced with these lead-out guys since the Tour of Britain so that’s a fair chunk of time away. It is good to get the confidence back in working together and that nothing has really changed, that is what we needed going into these next big races.

“I felt pretty tired during the day because we did five hours training yesterday, so I didn’t feel great but in the final when the adrenalin kicks in I felt alright and overall it was a good day.”

Matt White - Head Sport Director
“It isn’t the biggest race we do on the calendar but you still have to win them, and the boys did a great job of controlling the race and we nailed it in the final.

“The boys had the breakaway under control the whole time, Kreuziger and Chris Juul-Jensen rode all day and then once it came back it got quite stressful and windy as we entered the finishing circuits. Jack Bauer came to the front to keep the guys in good position and then Matteo Trentin had to do a big effort to bring us back up to the front after the boys caught caught out a little bit behind a crash.

“Today was a really good practice for the guys, Roger Kluge, Mezgec and Bauer will all be with racing together with Caleb in Abu Dhabi. It is the first time the quartet has worked together so we are starting to go through the motions now getting ready for the races coming up.

“It has also been a big weekend for these guys, when you look at the work Kreuziger, Juul-Jensen and Trentin have done these past two days it has been 400kilometres or more of racing and it is only going to benefit them and help them get to top condition.”

Complete Results:

185.1 kilometers raced at an average speed of 40.317 km/hr

1

EWAN, Caleb

MITCHELTON-SCOTT

4hr 35min 28sec

2

VAN POPPEL, Danny

LOTTO NL-JUMBO

s.t.

3

DUPONT, Timothy

WANTY-GROUPE GOBERT

s.t.

4

HOFSTETTER, Hugo

COFIDIS

s.t.

5

SENECHAL, Florian

QUICK-STEP FLOORS

s.t.

6

KUMP, Marko

CCC SPRANDI POLKOWICE

s.t.

7

SCHMIDT, Mads Würtz

KATUSHA-ALPECIN

s.t.

8

BARBERO, Carlos

MOVISTAR

s.t.

9

PLANCKAERT, Edward

SPORT VLAANDEREN-BALOIS

s.t.

10

ABERASTURI, Jon

EUSKADI BASQUE COUNTRY-MURIAS

s.t.

11

BOUDAT, Thomas

DIRECT ENERGIE

s.t.

12

SCHWARZMANN, Michael

BORA-HANSGROHE

s.t.

13

VERMELTFOORT, Coen

ROOMPOT-NEDERLANDSE LOTERIJ

s.t.

14

MAS, Luis G.

CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA

s.t.

15

HOULE, Hugo

ASTANA

s.t.

16

KRUOPIS, Aidis

VERANDA'S WILLEMS-CRELAN

s.t.

17

GILBERT, Philippe

QUICK-STEP FLOORS

s.t.

18

ROJAS, José

MOVISTAR

s.t.

19

SANCHEZ, Luis León

ASTANA

s.t.

20

GRADEK, Kamil

CCC SPRANDI POLKOWICE

s.t.

21

EZQUERRA, Jesus

BURGOS-BH

s.t.

22

ANDERSON, Ryan

RALLY CYCLING

s.t.

23

SAEZ, Hector

EUSKADI BASQUE COUNTRY-MURIAS

s.t.

24

AMADOR, Andrey

MOVISTAR

s.t.

25

MEZGEC, Luka

MITCHELTON-SCOTT

s.t.

26

LASTRA, Jonathan

CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA

s.t.

27

BRAVO, Garikoitz

EUSKADI BASQUE COUNTRY-MURIAS

@ 7sec

28

OFFREDO, Yoann

WANTY-GROUPE GOBERT

s.t.

29

KOCH, Jonas

CCC SPRANDI POLKOWICE

s.t.

30

V. KEIRSBULCK, Guillaume

WANTY-GROUPE GOBERT

s.t.

31

VAN DER LIJKE, Nick

ROOMPOT-NEDERLANDSE LOTERIJ

s.t.

32

VAN HOECKE, Gijs

LOTTO NL-JUMBO

s.t.

33

GOOLAERTS, Michael

VERANDA'S WILLEMS-CRELAN

18

34

SELIG, Rüdiger

BORA-HANSGROHE

21

35

KLUGE, Roger

MITCHELTON-SCOTT

s.t.

36

TULIK, Angelo

DIRECT ENERGIE

25

37

CLEMENT, Stef

LOTTO NL-JUMBO

29

38

VALGREN, Michael

ASTANA

33

39

VAN STAEYEN, Michaël

COFIDIS

s.t.

40

PÖSTLBERGER, Lukas

BORA-HANSGROHE

36

41

BAUER, Jack

MITCHELTON-SCOTT

s.t.

42

TRENTIN, Matteo

MITCHELTON-SCOTT

s.t.

43

PETIT, Adrien

DIRECT ENERGIE

s.t.

44

SALAS, Ibai

BURGOS-BH

46

45

CUBERO, Jorge

BURGOS-BH

s.t.

46

KOBERNYAK, Evgenii

GAZPROM-RUSVELO

s.t.

47

GOIKOETXEA, Peio

TEAM EUSKADI

s.t.

48

LEYSEN, Senne

VERANDA'S WILLEMS-CRELAN

s.t.

49

STYBAR, Zdenek

QUICK-STEP FLOORS

s.t.

50

MENTEN, Milan

SPORT VLAANDEREN-BALOIS

s.t.

51

SMIT, Willem Jakobus

KATUSHA-ALPECIN

s.t.

52

BIERMANS, Jenthe

KATUSHA-ALPECIN

s.t.

53

OWSIAN, Lukasz

CCC SPRANDI POLKOWICE

s.t.

54

CHERNETSKI, Sergei

ASTANA

s.t.

55

VAN HECKE, Preben

SPORT VLAANDEREN-BALOIS

s.t.

56

MAIKIN, Roman

GAZPROM-RUSVELO

s.t.

57

ERVITI, Imanol

MOVISTAR

s.t.

58

PFINGSTEN, Christoph

BORA-HANSGROHE

s.t.

59

INSAUSTI, Jon Ander

TEAM EUSKADI

s.t.

60

BENEDETTI, Cesare

BORA-HANSGROHE

s.t.

61

SHILOV, Sergei

GAZPROM-RUSVELO

s.t.

62

KOZONTCHUK, Dmitriii

GAZPROM-RUSVELO

s.t.

63

TRATNIK, Jan

CCC SPRANDI POLKOWICE

s.t.

64

JUNGELS, Bob

QUICK-STEP FLOORS

s.t.

65

ZABALA, Josu

CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA

s.t.

66

MAS, Enric

QUICK-STEP FLOORS

s.t.

67

AMEZQUETA, Julen

CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA

s.t.

68

KOZHATAYEV, Bakhtiyar

ASTANA

s.t.

69

SPILAK, Simon

KATUSHA-ALPECIN

s.t.

70

VAN SCHIP, Jan Willem

ROOMPOT-NEDERLANDSE LOTERIJ

s.t.

71

KRUIJSWIJK, Steven

LOTTO NL-JUMBO

s.t.

72

GATTO, Oscar

ASTANA

s.t.

73

COUSIN, Jerome

DIRECT ENERGIE

s.t.

74

MURPHY, Kyle

RALLY CYCLING

s.t.

75

SEPULVEDA, Eduardo

MOVISTAR

1:10

76

SCHILLINGER, Andreas

BORA-HANSGROHE

1:37

77

CLAEYS, Dimitri

COFIDIS

s.t.

78

DE GREEF, Robbert

ROOMPOT-NEDERLANDSE LOTERIJ

s.t.

79

TORRES, Pablo

BURGOS-BH

1:52

80

SOLER, Marc

MOVISTAR

s.t.

81

MARTIN, Tony

KATUSHA-ALPECIN

1:57

82

SERRY, Pieter

QUICK-STEP FLOORS

2:00

83

DE TIER, Floris

LOTTO NL-JUMBO

2:23

84

RIESEBEEK, Oscar

ROOMPOT-NEDERLANDSE LOTERIJ

s.t.

85

POWLESS, Neilson

LOTTO NL-JUMBO

s.t.

86

CHERKASOV, Nikolai

GAZPROM-RUSVELO

s.t.

87

VALLS, Rafael

MOVISTAR

s.t.

88

JOYCE, Colin

RALLY CYCLING

s.t.

89

DEVRIENDT, Tom

WANTY-GROUPE GOBERT

3:06

90

SELLIER, Simon

DIRECT ENERGIE

s.t.

91

GARCIA, Ricardo

TEAM EUSKADI

3:21

92

AZURMENDI, Ibai

TEAM EUSKADI

s.t.

93

RICKAERT, Jonas

SPORT VLAANDEREN-BALOIS

3:28

94

STEELS, Stijn

VERANDA'S WILLEMS-CRELAN

s.t.

95

GENE, Yohann

DIRECT ENERGIE

s.t.

96

ALLEGAERT, Piet

SPORT VLAANDEREN-BALOIS

3:40

97

JUUL JENSEN, Christopher

MITCHELTON-SCOTT

4:04

98

VANSPEYBROUCK, Pieter

WANTY-GROUPE GOBERT

s.t.

99

PRADES, Eduard

EUSKADI BASQUE COUNTRY-MURIAS

4:26

100

SANZ, Enrique

EUSKADI BASQUE COUNTRY-MURIAS

s.t.

101

MITRI, James

BURGOS-BH

s.t.

102

KREUZIGER, Roman

MITCHELTON-SCOTT

s.t.

103

DE BONDT, Dries

VERANDA'S WILLEMS-CRELAN

s.t.

104

FUGLSANG, Jakob

ASTANA

s.t.

105

MOREIRA, Mauricio J.

CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA

s.t.

106

FABBRO, Matteo

KATUSHA-ALPECIN

s.t.

107

BAUGNIES, Jérôme

WANTY-GROUPE GOBERT

s.t.

108

BELKOV, Maxim

KATUSHA-ALPECIN

s.t.

109

HERRADA, Jose

COFIDIS

s.t.

110

SOTO, Nelson A.

CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA

s.t.

111

SAMITIER, Sergio

EUSKADI BASQUE COUNTRY-MURIAS

s.t.

112

FERNANDEZ, Egoitz

TEAM EUSKADI

s.t.

113

ORONTE, Emerson

RALLY CYCLING

s.t.

114

ELLSAY, Nigel

RALLY CYCLING

s.t.

115

BIZKARRA, Mikel

EUSKADI BASQUE COUNTRY-MURIAS

s.t.

116

MINNAARD, Marco

WANTY-GROUPE GOBERT

s.t.

117

VAN EMPEL, Etienne

ROOMPOT-NEDERLANDSE LOTERIJ

s.t.

118

FOLIFOROV, Alexander

GAZPROM-RUSVELO

s.t.

119

SHALUNOV, Evgenii

GAZPROM-RUSVELO

s.t.

120

MENDES, José

BURGOS-BH

s.t.

121

PELUCCHI, Matteo

BORA-HANSGROHE

s.t.

122

NOPPE, Christophe

SPORT VLAANDEREN-BALOIS

s.t.

123

VAN GOMPEL, Mathias

SPORT VLAANDEREN-BALOIS

4:49

124

RODRIGUEZ, Cristian

CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA

5:25

125

ALONSO, Mikel

TEAM EUSKADI

s.t.

126

BUADES FERRIOL, Marc

TEAM EUSKADI

s.t.

127

RUBIO, Diego

BURGOS-BH

s.t.

128

BONNAFOND, Guillaume

COFIDIS

7:35

129

BOUWMAN, Koen

LOTTO NL-JUMBO

10:42

2018 Clásica de Almería map and profile

Race map

Race profile

2017 Clásica de Almería start list with back numbers, February 10, 2018: